(né Kerschbaumer) Orienteering

11th at Austrian Cross Champs

Austrian Cross Championships

At this year’s Cross Champs, we saw a stronger starting field as previous years, with Günther Weidlinger on top of it. In previous two years, I reached place 4 and 5 on the long course, but this time I was out of top ten, finishing 11th, just ahead of Markus. The course, 9,45km (1 short, 7 long rounds), was not a very difficult one, just a few short steep up- and downhills, a few corners and this time, dry conditions.

Already after the first round, the positions were clear and the field divided into several groups, Weidlinger already out of reach for everyone else. Our group consisted of 5-6 runners, but the running order stayed nearly the same throughout the whole race. The next group ahead of us was too far to reach for me, but still I tried to keep the speed high, trying to lose some of our group runner s. In the final lap, I could make a small gap to the others, with Markus coming closer and closer, but I finished two seconds ahead of him in 33:25 on place eleven. Günther Weidlinger won after a strong performance in 30:06, more than one minute after the next ones.

In the team results, we (Markus Lang, Wolfgang Sigert and me) could defend our silver medal from the last year.

I am satisfied with my performance today, as I could keep the speed constant throughout the race. But to achieve better results in cross races, as well as in orienteering, I have to improve a lot.